URTV board will meet tomorrow to vote on new bylaws

In violation of its own bylaws — which require at least seven days’ notice — the URTV Board of Directors will hold a special meeting tomorrow to vote on a new set of bylaws that would eliminate the current membership structure and place more power in the board’s hands.

The board will hold a special meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday at Trinity Baptist Church, located at 216 Shelburne Road, where Board President Jerry Young is an associate pastor. The meeting is open to the public.

The only agenda items are the vote on the new bylaws and a report from the board’s nominating committee. The changes to the bylaws will need to pass with a two-thirds majority of the board to go into effect.

The meeting is rescheduled from May 21, when the board had to cancel their regularly scheduled meeting due to an inability to unlock their normal meeting place at the Buncombe County television offices.

On that day, Young told board members, onlookers and the press that a new meeting date would be announced “within the next couple of days.”

URTV’s bylaws state that “notices of Special Board Meetings must be mailed by first-class mail, or distributed via fax or e-mail, to each of the directors at least seven (7) days before such meeting.”

E-mails obtained by Xpress show that URTV Executive Director Pat Garlinghouse began asking board members when they could meet last Friday and sent a notice of the board meeting out yesterday morning.

When asked by Xpress today to clarify when the meeting was officially announced, Garlinghouse said, “I don’t know.” When asked who might know, she replied, “No one here. I don’t know.”

About David Forbes

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Oh my….Ms. Garinghouse who sent out the email asking board members when they could meet last Friday and sent a notice of the board meeting out yesterday morning.
Then today when asked by Xpress today to clarify when the meeting was officially announced, Garlinghouse said, “I don’t know.” When asked who might know, she replied, “No one here. I don’t know.”

If one goes back through URTV’s minutes you never see mention of the Board as a group making the decision that the Bylaws need to be re-written. This was never discussed at a regular Board meeting. What’s wrong here, is a small segment of the Board have gotten together with an attorney (again no Board meeting ever occured and allowed retention of counsel)..and radically changed URTV’s bylaws , and now a lame-o Board meekly submits to the ED force feeding these revisions. Will it be a good thing for Public Access in Buncombe? I don’t know, but I don’t think so….since the original mission statement of providing facility for the citizens of Buncombe to have access, was completely removed from the revision. Who knows what Pat is up too?

About five or six years ago, when I was reporting for Mountain Xpress, I wrote one of the many articles Xpress published on the struggle to get public-access TV going in Buncombe. (Seems to have faded from the online archive, unfortunately.) That was the off-the-record complaint from one of the key organizers I interviewed; he told me this because he knew I am Wiccan and he was frustrated and angered by the overt intolerance he was encountering.

Many people aren’t aware of what a years-long uphill battle it took to get public-access TV established in the face of deeply entrenched, mostly ideological and “culture-war” resistance to it. I hope I can find that article I wrote — it delved into a lot of that.

Holy kumquats, here it is — a direct quote from Rev. Young. Not in the article I wrote, but in one by Steve Shanafelt, at http://www.mountainx.com/news/2004/0519county.php, titled “Buncombe County Commission: Commissioners take next step to public-access TV”.

And I’ll try out your italics code — thanks!

[i]Other station proponents spoke about how URTV could provide support for community projects and showcase the area’s diversity.

To some, however, that very diversity is a cause for concern.

“I understand that we live in a diverse community today,” said Pastor Jerry Young of Trinity Baptist Church. “But why do we need to allow diversity that is foreign to us?” And though he acknowledged that the station would bring benefits to the community, Young also raised the specter of children being exposed to obscenity.

Many other speakers seemed to share Young’s concerns. Under federal law, everyone in the community must have access to such stations and be free to say whatever they want. Religions other than Christianity could have airtime if someone in the community went to the trouble of producing a show about them. So could any other group.[/i]

Read the whole article and it will be clear who my off-the-record informant was. And that Young — now the head of URTV — vehemently opposed it from the start.

Pluto, my comprehension is pretty good. One of the objections seem to be against the person of the associate pastor at Trinity, Mr. Young. His religious persuasions and associations have nothing to do with his level of performance in this matter. If he is a slimeball then so be it but if he is being attacked because of his ideology and moral/cultural views, then it is improper.
Overall, this whole issue looks more like one cultural view gaining a foothold over other cultural views and the losers in the struggle don’t like it. It doesn’t matter which side you look at.

“if he is being attacked because of his ideology and moral/cultural views,”

Who has attacked Rev. Young, chairman of URTV board of directors, because of his ideological and moral/cultural views?

I have only heard claims that he was opposed to URTV on moral grounds and advocated censorship, and that the Rev. is incompetent as an administrative functionary. Both of which are true factual statements.

[i]Humm, a Christian now heads up URTV and that is a problem? re Travelah
________________________________
your reading comprehension isnt too good, lil t. The problem would appear to be his stated desire at not allowing other opinions than his own be expressed-not his ‘christian’ affiliation.
Fail. THE PFKaP [/i]

Problem is it’s explicitlty written in both the city and county management agreement that no discriminations as to race, religion, gender…etc. is allowed in a public access studio.
In other words much to jerry youngs’ dislike there are many other forms of worship besides fundamentalism.

Why are you idiots still talking about a stupid meeting? Cant any of you see what’s really going on? At least URTV is still on the air. A knife was just put into the heart of Ashevilles community media.

well it’s pretty much over.. some of us were trying to stop pat g.,and gang from rewriting the bylaws..
now the new bylaws are so far from any thing to do with public access,i don’t think the phrase public access,even shows up in them…is it just me,or dose anyone else see a problem with this ??
it looks as though anyone can do a show at urtv,as Long as they are a halfwit..
halfwit tv,that’s the thing…i thought that’s what youtube was for..
dose anyone remember the blue rags ?? well i made this video of them last week..http://exposureroom.com/members/paychoacoustic.aspx/assets/c65bfbae70134bb5961cfb173dc97c8a/
do you think anyone in asheville would like to see this stuff on pubilc access..

[i]… so, where was Richard Bernier? Could he not find the meeting place? [/1]

Typical smokescreen b.s. point on Bernier. The real issue besides railroading through a new set of bylaws that gives all the Board power to the Executive Committee (only Garlinghouse minions) will be allowed on the executive committee). Why was someone who sent out a letter of resignation, allowed to seat and vote on thie issue? Here is a reprint of the resignation letter.

[1]Resignation from URTV
It is with deep regret that I resign from URTV (as enumerated in part below) effective at the end of the
5-21-09 board meeting.
The unwarranted vilification (Scott, as an attorney understands the ramifications of this term) enabled
by Mountain Express of me personally and URTV in general and the misguided actions of a very few
board members have impacted negatively on both my professional and personal life and we, as a board,
do not seem to have the intestinal fortitude to toss those off the board who are sabotaging (such as the
recent leak, or should I say ‘broadcast’ of the proposed Bylaws revisions) and generally maliciously
impeding our efforts to do good for URTV. In short, URTV is no longer fun and I am no longer willing
to freely give the many hours of my time and hundreds of dollars in services and facilities I have been
providing each month.
Therefore, I resign from all my connections with URTV included below (but not limited to):
? Secretary of the URTV Board (minutes for 3-19-09 attached, I will not be taking minutes for the
5-22-09 meeting).
? Member of the URTV Board
? Member/Producer of URTV (and I request that all programming and promos I’ve produced
under my name be immediately removed). For those who follow “Rapid Ralph,” these shows
will continue on the web.
? Registered Corporate Agent for URTV (Scott, please pay attention to this one). As of this
moment, I will no longer accept service or any other responsibility for URTV, Inc.; a new agent
needs to be registered with the Secretary of State’s office post-haste.
? Web hosting for URTVweb.com, URTVforums.com, URTVradio.com. The latter two have
already been removed from the web, URTVweb.com (as a courtesy requested by Pat) will
remain on for a few days, but the VOD service is disconnected.
? Any informal commitments, such as Dale’s upcoming festival (which is still a good idea that I
endorse).
? I will no longer produce or edit shows for URTV for other producers (my apologies to those I
have been working for (none of whom I have ever charged money) but my break with URTV
must be clean and total.
–Ralph Roberts
email copy provided to board members (not for dissemination)
printed and signed copy served via U.S. Mail to the offices of URTV, 31 College Place, Asheville NC. [/i]

Yes why was Ralph allowed to vote seeing how he resigned before this meeting to change the Bylaws? Was this merely another Garlinghouse ploy to make sure she got her way even though this vote is invalid since she could not bother tp follow proper protocols in regards to special meetings and NC open meeting laws?

As far as I am concerned since Pat and URTV could not, once again, follow their own bylaws or open meeting laws as required by the county and city management agreements, this vote is illegal and non binding. The old Bylaws still stand as the governing principles of URTV. Sorry Pat but once again you tried to circumvent your own rules and got caught…so once again you lose and make yourself look like a jackass!!!

The best option on the table is to stop funding to URTV and shut it down or fire Pat and the current board at URTV and start over fresh.

Why are you idiots still talking about a stupid meeting? Cant any of you see what’s really going on? At least URTV is still on the air. A knife was just put into the heart of Ashevilles community media.
AND NONE OF YOU CARE!
Signed, Jill[/i]

Oh yes we do care. It’s just that this thread is about URTV….and if you’ll take the time to read through the bylaws changes you’ll see how URTV is heading the way of WPVM. These bylaws only benefit the ED and her executive committee. Bowen nd Garlinghouse are cut from the same cloth. Say goodbye to public access in Asheville if these people contimue to have their way.

Ralph was the reason for the local gas price hikes. Now his show is gone we all demand gas prices get back to normal and all cookie and candy taxes repealed. Now at the same time my Kiss my asheville show should get reinstated and bring up for vote the re-election of Kurt Mann. Now!